Golf tee



Patented Mar. 31, 1942 UETED STATES T OFFICE 1 Claim.

My invention relates to improvements in golf tees and has for its object the provision of a tee which is particularly adapted for use in connection with golf practice apparatus or with a tee supporting member suitably constructed for holding the tee outwardly in a horizontal manner.

In golf practice it is frequently desirable to have the player repeatedly make the same kind of a shot, keeping the position he rst assumes in addressing the ball, and retaining as nearly as possible, the same stance. It is also desirable that the ball be repeatedly teed up in the same spot and at a regular and fixed elevation above the ground or other surface on which the tee is supported. Conventional peg tees of the kind in common use are unsuited for practice of this kind, because, when hit by the player and driven away, as frequently occurs, it is diicult to find the spot in which they were located and equally difficult to reset the tees so as to restore the ball to its original height or elevation above the tee supporting body.

An object of the present invention is to meet these difficulties by the provision of a tee which is not insertible in or directly supported on the earth or ground, but which is constructed and adapted to be removably mounted on a suitable holding member in such a manner as to support the ball remotely therefrom, so that while the tee may be hit and driven out of engagement with the member, the member, itself, will be adequately protected and left undisturbed. Thus by replacing the tee in the member, it will be possible to restore the ball to its precise original position.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tee of this kind which is adapted for use in connection with signalling apparatus designed for giving certain indications relative to the character or results of a players performance, and wherein the tee holding member constitutes an operable part of the apparatus whereby a signal or indication is automatically given upon removal of the ball from the tee.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tee of this kind of light weight and small bulk, which while affording a rm and rigid support for the ball, will, nevertheless, be sufficiently soft and pliable not to dent or otherwise injure the face of the golf club when struck thereby.

A further object of the invention is to provide a unitary tee of this kind which may be economically manufactured and supplied in quantities at low cost, and which, for extending the useful life thereof, is made in the form of an elongated bar having similarly and oppositely formed ball seating ends, so that the tee may be reversible and that both ends thereof may be interchangeably used for supporting the ball thereon,

Other objects of the invention will appear more fully in the following specifications and appended claim.

In the drawing, Figure 1 represents my imn proved tee mounted in a holding member with a golf ball supported on the tee.

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the tee.

Fig. 3 is a vertical central section of the tee; and Fig. 4 a perspective View of a modified form thereof.

As illustrated, the tee is constructed in the form of an integral elongated bar, denoted by the numeral l, and is provided on its upper face adjacent the ends 3l thereof with ball seating formations preferably in the nature of cup-shaped depressions 2 sunk below the surrounding sur- 'face. The tee is preferably flat throughout and of greater width than thickness, and the ends thereof are preferably rounded as shown and are in al1 respects similarly and oppositely formed, the upper and lower faces thereof being in parallel planes and each end having a ball seat located centrally of and sunk below the upper face thereof and at the same distance from its terminal edge. The tee is thus made longitudinally reversible and the ends thereof rendered capable of use interchangeably for all service for which the tee is adapted.

The numeral 6 denotes a pin or other tee supporting member, which may be disposed, either flxedly or otherwise, on the earth or other supporting body, to hold the tee at the desired elevation and in substantially horizontal position thereabove, said member being provided with means, such as the vertically opposed jaws 'l and B, here shown for purposes of illustration, forming a socket for'loosely and removably receiving and holding one end of the tee therein.

The manner of using the tee in connection with such a tee holding member is illustrated in Fig. 1, wherein one end of a tee is shown as held in the socket and a golf ball I0 is shown as seated on the opposite end of the tee. As will be observed, the tee supports the ball remotely from the holding member, and the body of the tee is of appropriate length to provide a relatively wide lateral path of travel for the club head through which the latter may be swung in striking the ball without danger of hitting or otherwise disturbing the holding member.

In Fig. 4, a modification of the tee is shown wherein the construction is in all respects similar to that above described with the exception that the ball seats are in the nature of annular openings or perforations, as 5, passing completely through the body of the tee.

The tee as above described, is preferably made of wood, hard rubber, Celluloid or the like material, and is of suitable cross sectional proportions to provide a rigid and firm support for the ball, the material being sulciently soft and pliable that when the tee is struck by the club it will not dent or otherwise injure the face thereof.

Being intended mainly for use in practice and hence by players lacking the high degree of skill and accuracy requisite for consistently driving a golf ball clean of a tee, the reversible character of my improved tee with the provision of its interchangeable ball seating ends, is regarded as an important and valuable feature of the invention. It is recognized that in the course of continuous play the tee will be frequently struck and injured by the club and will eventually become so completely fractured and deformed as to be incapable of further service. In many instances, however, it will be found that while one end of the tee may become damaged to the extent of being no longer capable of properly supporting the ball thereon, the other end thereof will remain virtually intact, so that the tee may be reversed and the useful life thereof thus prolonged.

What I claim is:

In a golf tee, in combination, a holding member for vertical erection on a supporting body, said member comprising a pin, pointed at its lower end for insertion in the supporting body and having a socket at its upper end, said socket including vertically spaced upper and lower jaws projecting radially from one side of the pin, the inner faces of said jaws being flat and in parallel planes at right angles to the axis of the pin, a socket mouth open at the front and at one side of the pin being formed between said faces, and an elongated ball carrying bar of rigid strip material, said bar having similarly and oppositely formed end sections, said end sections having flat upper and lower parallel faces designed to permit loose slidable reception and ejection of said end sections in and from the mouth of said socket, and said end sections having ball seating formations correspondingly disposed on the upper faces thereof at equal distances from the terminal portions of the bar, whereby when the pin is in upright position and one end section of the bar is inserted in the socket, a ball may be seated and removably retained on the opposite end section thereof at a predetermined elevation above the supporting body, and whereby the bar may be freely ejected from the mouth of the socket when struck forwardly in a horizontal direction.

FRANK H. LEHMAN. 

